"America has two great dominant strands of political thought - conservatism,
which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed;
and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that
should never have been erected."
-- Bill Clinton, Dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

as I predicted yesterday, Clark has dropped out of the race. My sense is that Clark will probably lie low during teh Wisconsin primary, but if he retains any desire to influence the debate, then he will make his endorsement of another candidate in advance of Super Tuesday in March. The best course of action for him remains being someone's Veep, though of course he likely would be willing to settle for SecDef.

If I were Clark, I'd be looking hard at Dean right now. The test remains how Dean fares in Wisconsin. A solid win, or even a strong second, should be enough to convince Clark of Dean's viability. The race here is to influence the debate, as Clark himself has noted, and that process of debate simply shuts down if the nominee is coronated by the media and the Democratic establishment. What is needed is a choice, that can drive the debate, and thus keep the pressure (and the media coverage) focused on Democratic issues.

Ultimately, having a contested primary means that Bush is left out in the cold, in terms of media share. And the Dems have been effective in using their joint appeaances to bash the disastrous policies of the Administration, bringing them to the attention of the wider audience. There is NO WAY the AWOL story would have gotten any traction if not for the primary, for example. Nor would the Plame Affair have legs, or the GOP theft of Dem computer memos. The Democratic primary is keeping the national debate alive and for this reason alone Dean must continue at all cost to the convention.

If Clark joins him, then we have a good shot at winning. But Dean has to continue regardless. Anything less means that ChangeForAmerica will be long in coming, indeed.

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About Nation-Building

Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very
first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising
over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi
a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts
among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After
the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics",
formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006.
The primary focus of the blog is on articulating
purple-state policy at home and
pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.